


Suitcases

by kit_erinsen



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Multi, mild spoilers for later eps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21722686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kit_erinsen/pseuds/kit_erinsen
Summary: One of the suitcases Lily lives out of is full of yarn
Relationships: Ben Arnold/Emily Potter, Lily Wright/Katie Lynch, Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Comments: 8
Kudos: 56





	Suitcases

One of the suitcases Lily lives out of is full of yarn.

No one knows this. Not Sammy, he never bothered to find out her hobbies outside of work, and Jack never told him. Katie doesn’t know it either, not yet at least because Lily hasn’t worked up the nerve to tell her. (Katie suspects that suitcase is a very physical part of Lily’s metaphorical baggage and, well, she’s not wrong)

The suitcase holds an astonishing amount of yarn, in all of her brother’s favorite colors. A lovely acrylic bulky weight, perfect for the blanket she was making for Jack, the blanket she started before—

Best not to dwell on that. She hasn’t worked on the blanket in long enough that on her worst days she considers lighting it on fire. On slightly better days she contemplates frogging it and donating the yarn. It’s on one of these days she asks Mary if there’s a yarn shop in King Falls after running into her at Rose’s. Mary quietly notices the look in her eyes and gives her directions and a hug. 

Lily tries to play off just how much she needed that hug, realizes Mary _knows_ somehow, and is happy nothing is actually said about it. (Mary is a warm merino shawl in golden brown, perfect for wrapping up in on cool mornings while drinking coffee before the kids are awake)

She doesn’t want to like the yarn shop. She doesn’t plan to return except once, to donate Jack’s yarn, after ascertaining that they’ll accept the donation. She can’t deny that just walking through the door takes an edge off and relieves some of her ever-present tension. As she makes her way to the back counter, she finds her fingers trailing through the skeins and hanks of fiber. The owner eventually finds her nearly elbow-deep in a basket of alpaca yarn trying to convince herself to walk away.

An hour later she does...with enough yarn to make a matching hat, scarf, and arm warmers for Emily. (Emily is a sunny silk merino and lattice lace)

Herschel, of all people, is the one to catch her coming out of the yarn shop a few days later (she forgot her needles were still back...home? Is it really still home?). He raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything as she stares him down, daring him to take a shot. Herschel understands coping mechanisms when he sees them and leaves with a “I’ll tell Cecil you said hello” as he walks past her to his car. (Herschel is a heavy woolen scarf in forest green with a complicated Celtic knot cable)

She hasn’t been able to bring herself to frog the blanket. Katie catches her staring at the opened suitcase one night (Lily could have sworn she was still asleep, Katie having dozed off in the middle of the movie they’d been watching). Katie listens silently as Lily (finally) explains the suitcase, and holds her as she cries out her grief. She won’t tell the boys, bless-their-hearts-they-mean-well, but they don’t need to know about this. 

(Katie is a rich purple cashmere/merino cardigan, worn on nights when it’s just the two of them and they can forget the crazy that is King Falls)

Ben is nearby when Lily presents Emily with her hat, scarf, and arm warmers. Lily rolls her eyes as he sputters over the gift. “Relax, short stack, I’m not stealing your girlfriend...today.” (Ben is 5 pairs of socks in the wildest self-striping sock yarn she can find)

Ron ends up sporting a rainbow-striped scarf a month or so after an afternoon spent on the lake introducing Lily to Kingsie. When she’s bored, Lily considers the logistics of knitting for mythical aquatic beasts and laughs at the resulting mental image of Kingsie with a tam that matches Ron’s scarf. Katie shakes her head fondly and grabs one of the balls of Jack’s yarn before it escapes from the couch. (Katie resolves for the third time that week to buy Lily a yarn bowl)

At the gang’s holiday shindig (held at Rose’s, where else?), Troy opens a box to find a hat and gloves in a nice, official charcoal grey, perfect for late night patrols. (The hat has a replica of the King Falls sheriff’s insignia worked into the front)

Sammy walks into the station early one night to find Lily spinning in Ben’s chair and a brightly colored bundle sitting on his. On top of his mic is a warm blue...something that looks like it could be a hat, except—“There’s a hole in the top. What the fuck, Lily?”

“It’s for that ridiculous man-bun you insist on keeping, Shotgun.” (Ben comes in a moment later to Lily laughing hysterically at Sammy’s expression)

The brightly colored bundle is momentarily forgotten in the scuffle of Lily shoving the bun-hat on Sammy’s head and Ben recording everything so he can share it with Emily later. During their first break, after Lily finally leaves to go meet Katie at Rose’s for post-late-night-patrol pancake puppies, Sammy turns his attention to the bundle. Unfolded, it reveals itself to be a giant, colorful blanket. Ben picks up the note that flutters to the ground and reads it.

_For when we get him back_


End file.
